My Son, If Sinners Entice You… Proverbs chapter 1 verses 8 to 19
Many say “The bible is irrelevant in the 21st Century!” Or is it that it is too relevant?
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” 2 Timothy 3:16
Does Proverbs give principles for all time, or only for Solomon’s time? Is it merely cultural and temporary or universal and eternal?
Wisdom in the Home
Here Solomon invites us into a family home.
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
Proverbs 1:8-9
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.
Wise children need wise parents. “Listen…” Note that both parents have a part, a responsibility. Children, do not forsake your parents instruction and teaching.
Scenario: “if sinners entice you…”
Principle 1: “do not give in to them”
10 My son, if sinful men entice you,
Proverbs 1:10-14
do not give in to them.
11 If they say, ‘Come along with us;
let’s lie in wait for innocent blood,
let’s ambush some harmless soul;
12 let’s swallow them alive, like the grave,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things
and fill our houses with plunder;
14 cast lots with us;
we will all share the loot’–
Fathers, tell your kids about the real world, of its evil and violence, or others will give them a twisted view, luring them to evil. First it’s “come along with us”, but ends with “throw in your lot with us”: total commitment to evil.
Principle 2: “do not go along with them”
15 my son, do not go along with them,
Proverbs 1:15-19
do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into evil,
they are swift to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net
where every bird can see it!
18 These men lie in wait for their own blood;
they ambush only themselves!
19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;
it takes away the life of those who get it.
“Their feet rush into sin… they lie in wait for their own blood”. They dig a pit and fall into it themselves. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” Galatians 6:7
We are all creatures of imitation …
JC Ryle, “Thoughts for Young Men.”
Health, unhappily, is not contagious — but disease is.
